Iranian Women–Solutions To Crisis In Iran Must Address Women’s Rights

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Feb 162010
 

While Hillary Clinton others Iran, talking tough about how Iran might trigger a nuclear arms race (never mind that companies like Halliburton have been more than happy to supply them with the means to do so) and become a dictatorship (which we only denounce when it is in our so-called political best interest to do so), women in Iran are offering substantive ideas for changing the Iranian paradigm as if women mattered.

Jailed Women Activists In Iran

Via the Women’s Forum Against Fundamentalism in Iran (WFAFI):

A group of Iranian women activists issued a statement listing their own solutions to the current crisis in the country. They maintain that the proposals put forth by opposition leaders, Mir Hossein Mousavi and Mehdi Karroubi “neglect” the demands of women. Some of the jailed women activists: Iran Arrest of 19 Activists from the Women’s Movement, Women Journalists and Civil Activists Iranian women have been a very key part of the opposition movement.

The statement lists: “annulment of all discriminatory and anti-women laws, recognition of women’s right to their body and mind, ending violence against women and prosecution of all perpetrators of the crimes committed in the past thirty years” as solutions for exiting the current crisis.

They add that women’s issues are a major part of the current crisis and “no solution will be effective” without recognizing and trying to resolve these issues.

The statement also supports general demands such as “freedom of thought, speech and assembly.” While calling for an end to torture and the death penalty, they also express their support for “the immediate and unconditional release of all political prisoners.” Some of these demands are similar to those included in the proposals by Mir Hossein Mousavi and Mehdi Karroubi.

The statement emphasizes that the demand of the women community “is not changing the president or limiting the power of the leadership; but rather the realization of fundamental and structural changes.” Shadi Amin, Golrokh Jahanguiri, Fariba Davoudi, Shadi Sadr, Mahboubeh Abbasgholizadeh and Shahla Abghari are amongst the signatories of this statement. Women have played a major role in the recent protests in Iran and scores of women’s activists have been detained and imprisoned for their participation in the protests.

In November, Mir Hossein Mousavi and Mehdi Karroubi condemned the violent treatment of women by government forces during the protests.

Demands included in the statement:

1. Abolishment of all discriminatory laws against women including divorce rights, marriage age, polygamy, inheritance laws, testimony, etc.
2. Recognition of women over her choice of clothing and body. This include freedom of wearing or not wearing the veil, and, abortion rights.
3. Abolishment of all forms of violence against women both at home and in publish, this includes abolishment of honor-killing.
4. Separation of church and state.
5. Prosecution of all the officials engaged in crimes against humanity and women in the past three decades.

See also here and here.

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 Posted by Fempeace on February 16, 2010

Iranian Women Object To Polygamy Law

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Feb 052010
 

Via the Iranian journal Mianeh:

Iranian women’s groups and other rights organisations are fighting a much discussed proposed law which they say would encourage polygamy by allowing a man to take a second wife without the permission of the first in certain circumstances.

The proposal comes at a time when the country has been rocked by protests, in which women have played a major part, following the disputed re-election last June of President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad.

Although Sharia law permits a man to take up to four wives, polygamy is not widely practiced in Iran and women have enjoyed greater rights and freedoms than in some other Muslim countries. At present, an Iranian man needs his first wife’s permission to take a second.

A so-called Family Protection Law, proposed by the government in 2008, said a man could marry a second wife on condition only that he could afford both wives financially. The parliament dropped that clause following a wave of opposition from women but is now reconsidering a different version of the provision.

The spokesman for the parliament’s Judicial and Legal Commission, Amir Hussein Rahimi, announced recently that the commission had now approved article 23 of the proposed Family Protection Law that said, “A man can marry a second wife under ten conditions.”

The new version still requires the first wife to give permission, though controversially this would not be required under certain conditions, such as if she is mentally ill, or suffers from infertility, a chronic medical condition or drug addiction, in which case the husband can marry another woman. Also if the first wife does not cooperate sexually, the husband can take another wife.

The change is being promoted by conservative members of the parliament as a move that supports Islamic law. A leading conservative deputy, Ali Motahari, said in parliament last year, “Polygamy is Islam’s honour.”

Iranian women still oppose the legalisation of polygamy, saying it weakens their role and status at home and in society.

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 Posted by Fempeace on February 5, 2010

Monday Morning Inspiration–Artistic Activism On Behalf Of The People Of Iran

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Jul 272009
 

Many thanks to Marcia G. Yerman for her kind permission to reprint her beautiful art highlighting the extremely dangerous situation for women who have been arrested in Iran for their part in the ongoing demonstrations there.  Marcia explains,

Women who have taken part in demonstrations are now being executed.  However, according to the prevailing conservative version of Islamic law being enacted in Iran, a virgin can not be killed.  Currently, the women who took part in the opposition protest who have been arrested are being “married” to prison guards…who then consummate the marriage through rape. The women are then killed.

You can see the full size image of this beautiful work at Pantea’s Roses where you can also add your own work.

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 Posted by Fempeace on July 27, 2009

Iran: The Mothers of Laleh

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Jul 242009
 

The Mothers of Laleh is an astounding, poignant source of information about how mothers in Iran are coping with the loss and disappearance of their children. The following is a letter from Nobel Prize Winner Shirin Ebadi to the mourning mothers of Iran:

Conscientious women of the world:
The tragedy in Iran is much larger than we had imagined. People who took to the streets to express their objection to the election results peacefully were met with bullets and truncheons. Many of those who survived the confrontations were arrested in the days that followed the protests.

Iran’s state radio and television broadcasts initially announced the number killed as eight and later eleven. However, more than twenty-five days after the street demonstrations, there are still many who have disappeared and their names are not on the lists of those who have been killed or arrested.

Many mothers have been anxiously going to any authorities who may give them information about their disappeared loved ones but have received no answers.

Now that families are slowly receiving the bodies of their slain children, it has become clear that the number of fatalities is much higher than what the government of the Islamic Republic has published.

Moreover, the families are being forced to sign legal covenants that they would not disclose how and when their loved ones died. But it is not possible to hide the truth forever, and it is not possible to silence the cries, so the tragedy of the past weeks is showing larger in
the eyes of the Iranian people as days pass.

Many mothers whose children were killed, are still among the disappeared or are in prisons have formed the Committee of Mourning Mothers.

Every Saturday from 7 to 8 PM, the members of this committee and other women who empathize with them dress in black and gather in public parks in their cities and towns to stand vigil and silently express their pain.

I would like to express my deep sorrow and condolences to the mothers who have lost their loved ones for freedom and democracy in Iran, and I stand in solidarity with women who are still searching for their disappeared and the large number of young Iranian women and men who are now in prisons because of their civil activism.

I invite all freedom loving women of the world to dress in black and gather in solidarity with the Committee of Mourning Mothers every Saturday in their own cities and towns every Saturday to help make their voices heard throughout the world.

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 Posted by Fempeace on July 24, 2009

The Right’s Reductive NOW Blaming (Again)

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Jul 012009
 

Wow, here’s a news flash, it turns out that the National Organization for Women is responsible for the mis-treatment of women in Iran.  Why the hell not, feminists are to blame for everything, aren’t they?

According to Chip Hanlon’s logic (okay, that might not be the right word), when a woman gets murdered on the streets of Iran, by the forces of a government that regularly abuses women, NOW is the culprit because it has not made this a ‘top priority’.

Well here’s a newsflash Mr. Hanlon–the N in NOW stands for National, that means that NOW primarily focuses on issues in this country.  Secondly, women are murdered every day in this country and way too frequently by our military forces in other countries and NOW is VERY vocal on those issues.

And what are you doing about Neda Agha Soltan’s murder Mr. Hanlon?  Are you too busy bashing feminists to realize that the murder of women is, at the end of the day, a man’s issue because men are the ones who need to stop killing women.  And oh by the way, if you did even a modicum of research you would know that NOW is not the only feminist organization and that many other feminist organizations have in fact been very vocal about the impact of what is happening in Iran on women’s lives.

Be that as it may, whether or not NOW issued a statement really isn’t the point because feminists are  not responsible for taking up the fight against every damned bad thing that happens on the planet, the argument that they are is misogyny at its worst.

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 Posted by Fempeace on July 1, 2009
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